A parish council has slammed the public engagement and consultation efforts of the organisers of the recently revived Isle of Wight Road Races (IWRR).
The proposed motorcycle event will take place in April 2022 through Chale, Shorwell, Brighstone and a stretch of the Military Road.
20,000+ spectators per day
Organisers are planning for between 20,000 and 30,000 spectators per day at the event and say it will produce a traffic management plan to support the numbers.
It is the third attempt to get the event up and running after the Covid pandemic foiled previous plans but has been met with mixed reactions.
Cllr: Nothing more than a PR event
A public meeting on the event took place on Thursday in Brighstone, but the efforts have been slammed by councillors as being nothing more than a public relations event.
In a leaflet providing more information about the event, however, IWRR says it is its priority to engage with Island residents to explain what the race is about and to take on board the feedback.
Stuart: “Lackadaisical” approach
Speaking at a Brighstone Parish Council (BPC) meeting yesterday, Cllr Nick Stuart said they are the only ones who are actually consulting the public.
He said,
“My opinion in their approach is, politely it is lackadaisical and realistically they are trying to obscure what they are doing and hide from as many people as possible.”
Parish survey
BPC is conducting its own survey of village residents, having given out 870 surveys, but chair, Cllr John Cirrone, said there was no advertising of the IWRR consultation and he was concerned there was a lot of people who are completely unaware of the consultation.
He said,
“There has been this complete lack of willingness to distribute properly enough information so everyone is aware of what is proposed.”
Alldred: More a presentation than a consultation
Cllr Doug Alldred said the public meeting was not at a helpful time for people who worked, as it starts at 3pm, and seemed it could be more of a presentation than a consultation, where the public could not ask questions.
The parish council has been given the IWRR information leaflet to post on its Website, but Cllr Alldred said it should only be posted with a warning the information had not come from them, so the contents may not be entirely accurate.
Alldred: Duty to make sure what we tell the public is accurate
He said,
“We need to make it very clear it is from the organisers, in their words and it may contain inaccuracies. A lot of their public information has contained things that, unfortunately, are not right.
“We have a duty to make sure what we tell the public is accurate.”
A six-week consultation is being held by IWRR, which started on 1st August, to hear the views and identify the specific needs and concerns of those that will be mainly affected.
More information can be found on its Website.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is part of. Read here to find about more about how that scheme works on the Island. Some alterations and additions may have been made by News OnTheWight. Ed
Image: vikram sundaramoorthy under CC BY 2.0
